The court ruled to liquidate the League of Voters

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow ruled to liquidate the League of Voters fund. This was announced by the executive director of the fund Vitaly Averin.

Averin noted that the decision was made in the absence of representatives of the fund, despite the announcement of the postponement of the meeting.

“We consider this order of the trial as politically motivated and unjust. Everything points to the fact that the command was given to destroy the organization that is a partner of the Golos movement and supports the training of independent public election observers,” he said.

The reason for the liquidation was an unscheduled inspection in October 2020, after which the Ministry of Justice issued comments to the fund, including those related to statutory activities, Averin told OVD-Info.

“There are many indications that the check was appointed due to the fact that we conducted independent monitoring of the all-Russian vote. The Ministry of Justice considered that the violations identified were malicious in nature and could not be eliminated, but this was not the case. We tried six times to amend the charter, and all six times the Ministry of Justice refused us, ”Averin explained.

On October 28, 2020, the Ministry of Justice entered the “League of Voters” into the register of NCO-foreign agents due to a donation from a resident of Moldova in the amount of 225 rubles, allegedly received in July 2019. Documents on the citizenship of the donor were not shown to the representatives of the fund, Averin noted. The fund itself has been suspended for the past five years.

In February, the court fined the fund 300,000 rubles under an article on violation of "foreign agency" legislation. The protocol was drawn up after an audit, as a result of which the fund was recognized as a "foreign agent".

• On December 11, 2020, a draft law was submitted to the State Duma providing for criminal liability for NPO employees and individuals recognized as “foreign agents”. On November 18 of the same year, another bill appeared , tightening the legislation on "foreign agents". It is proposed to indicate the "foreign agency" status when applying to state bodies, public and educational organizations. In addition, individuals included in the list of foreign agents will have to report to the Ministry of Justice about their income and expenses at least twice a year.
• On November 26, OVD-Info asked the deputies to introduce a bill repealing discriminatory legislation. In addition, a report on its enforcement was sent to the Federation Council, the Commissioner for Human Rights and members of the Presidential Human Rights Council.